The Helen Roberta Fitzgerald fonds contains archival material related to Fitzgerald's work in designing Canadian postage stamp issues and other aspects of her career in artistic design. Although Fitzgerald's work in stamp design was brief, occurring only between 1959 and 1967, seven Canadian postage stamp designs she made were accepted and used for eight postage stamp issues. Fitzgerald also produced designs for postage stamps for the Maldives. Included in this fonds are designs painted for the Maldives stamps, design essays, souvenir pages and letters from the Postmaster General, correspondence, postal covers, and newspaper clippings related to her work. There are also slides showing Fitzgerald's work in mosaics and graphic design for the Canadian centennial emblem. The contents of the fonds are arranged at the item or file level as appropriate.
Fitzgerald, Helen Roberta, 1919-2009 : Helen Roberta Fitzgerald, graphic designer and artist, was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1919. Raised in Toronto, she completed her elementary education at Humberside Collegiate. At nine she started art studies with Toronto's Saturday Morning Classes, then studied at the Children's Art Centre in 1932 and 1933. She received a full-time scholarship in 1936 to attend the Ontario College of Art and Design and would continue to attend on scholarships for the duration of her studies. She won the Governor General's Medal for general proficiency upon graduating in 1945. Fitzgerald taught at the college from graduation until 1980. While teaching, Fitzgerald also worked as a freelance graphic designer, calligrapher, layout artist, and textile artist. She has worked as a layout artist for Eaton's catalogue, was the first woman commissioned to design Canadian postage stamps, and has designed festal frontals for churches, stole, veils, burse, Bible markers, and desk falls. Mainly working in oils and watercolour, she focused her work on portraits and figure studies. Fitzgerald was a member of the Art Student's League of New York (1945), and The Embroiders Guild of London England (1965, 1966). She exhibited as a painter in Toronto and as an embroiderer in both Canada and England. She lived in King City, Ontario, with her husband Wilfred H. Bacon until passing away in May 2009.
